Aploshion
by A4
Summary: Bobby travels to the territory of Aploshion, Saint Dane's home. To Bobby's horror he finds that Aploshion has already exploded from the inside, causing it to break apart. How can Bobby hope to save a territory that is already destroyed? CHAPTER 10 ADDED.
1. Bobby's Introduction

Okay, Mark and Courtney, I've been to some weird territories before but nothing like this.  
First of all, I have had it confirmed that this is Saint Dane's territory. Yes, this is Saint Dane's home and he's still trying to destroy it. Weird, huh?  
Also, the people here all look like Saint Dane. They are all tall, have gray (or white) hair, and are very, very pale. But I'm still pretty sure Saint Dane is the only one who can transform himself into anyone, thankfully.  
And last, the territory of Aploshion is very high-tech. Too high-tech, actually. I'm not sure how yet, but the territory of Aploshion is destroyed. Literally. From what I've been told, the whole planet of Aploshion blew up about seventeen years ago. Luckily the Aploshion scientists could see the destruction of their planet months before it happened, so with a lot of hard work they were able to build hundreds of space stations to get most people to safety.  
In fact, that's where I am right now. I'm writing to you guys from a space station! Let me tell you what happened...


	2. The New Territory

Now you guys probably have a lot of questions for me. How did Aploshion explode? Why would Aploshion explode? How come the people of Aploshion didn't die from the impact of the explosion? Don't worry, I guarantee that by the end of this journal, all those questions will be answered. But for now, let's start from the beginning..

I was in the flume on my way to Aploshion. I had no idea what to expect or what would happen. I tried to take my mind off the suspense of my arrival by focusing on the pictures on the flume walls. These pictures had always confused me and this time was no different.

I saw mountains with snow-capped peaks which I figured were from Denduron. I saw one of the habitat cities from Cloral. I also looked at a picture of the beautiful city of Black Water on Eelong.

Eventually I saw that I was coming to the end of the flume. I braced myself for whatever I would find. The flume music eventually died out and I stepped off the flume.

I took a good look around. I could tell right away that technology here was advanced. I was standing in a small room. The rooms were all white and here and there some panels stuck out from the wall with shiny gray and black buttons on them. There were also a few shiny black metal crates. I had no idea what was in them but I figured I must be in some storage room. Finally at the wall of the opposite end of the room from where I was standing was a shiny, metal, grayish-white door. There was a giant, black button in the middle of it.

As I was taking all this in the door opened. I immediately drew my attention to the door, preparing for whoever could be coming in. What I saw next amazed me.

Stepping in through the door was a little robot. I would guess it stood about 4'. It had a gray, rectangular shaped body. From the bottom of the body, two small black tubes extended with small gray rectangles at the end to form legs. Two small black tubes also came from the sides of the body with a small little gray circle attached at the end. Coming from the circles were five small, rectangles. These must have been the arms and hands.

Then finally, a black tube came up from the top of the body to form a neck. From the neck, a gray square with two black eyes and a rectangular mouth formed the head. I was stunned. Yes guys, this was just like out of one of those sci-fi movies. It was truly amazing.

The robot looked up at me with its beady little black eyes. Then it spoke in a strange language. I'm not sure what it said but if I could guess I would say it went something like this: "Ghaka-tookin-camble. Dhleea-hsgasggaaa. Jjlngsgafneser."

Like I said, complete babble. It spoke really fast too. I also noticed something really neat. Whenever it said something, the letters of which it was speaking would roll past its rectangular mouth. Too bad I caught this at the end or else I might have been able to remember what it said.

When it was done speaking it kept on looking at me, as if expecting me to respond. Since I had no response I tried to move around it to the door. But the dumb little robot wouldn't let me get past! It clutched my arm with one of its robotic hands. Trust me for a little guy, he had a strong grip. Actually come to think of it, I shouldn't really call it a he. I guess I should call him an it.

Anyways, I tried to get loose but it wouldn't let me. Instead it repeated its previous statement of robot babble. I was totally trapped. What could I say to it?

Luckily, I was saved the trouble of thinking of a response because the next moment the robot completely let go of my arm. In fact, it fell to the floor! I looked at it, bewildered until I noticed someone standing at the doorway. I almost fell over like the robot. It was Saint Dane!

But then I took a closer look and was relived to see, it wasn't Saint Dane. Heck, it wasn't even a guy! Who I saw standing there was a girl around my age and probably a foot taller than me. She had eerily pale skin, I mean pure white. No wonder I thought it was Saint Dane! Plus she had long, silver hair, just like Saint Dane except a little shinier. Her eyes were also blue, but not with near the intensity of Saint Dane's. She wore a gray jumpsuit that had a black button on one of the sides.

She looked at me and said "You are Bobby Pendragon, aren't you?"

I nodded. I was still massaging my arm from the robot's hard grip.

She smiled. "I see you had a run in with one of the robots. No, they don't have robots like these on Second Earth do they?"

Now that I had regained my stamina I realized that why would she know my name, or the territories for that matter?

"Who are you? Where am I? And what was that robot-thing doing?" I asked her.

"Relax Bobby. My name is Kiah and I'm the Traveler here on Aploshion. Now come, I'll take you back to my home so you can rest up a bit." she responded.

I didn't know what else to do and considering she was the Traveler here I started to follow her out the door. I guess it just freaked me out that she looked so much like Saint Dane.

We stepped out of the small storage room into a vast hallway. Like the storage room, the walls were pure-white out here too. Gray doors were lined up neatly along the hall. We started walking down the left side of the hall. Then we emerged from the hallway into a giant room. People were walking about and talking with others. Giant plants and fountains stood in the center of the room. I looked up at the ceiling. Guys, I could see about thirty stories up in the building! It made me wonder exactly how big the building was that I was in.

Before I could think about it anymore though, I noticed the plants. There were four giant plants that stood in giant vases which stood at the four corners of the giant fountain. I mean, these plants were huge! But the oddest thing about them was their color. These plants were purple!

Kiah pulled me away from them and told me "Quick, we must walk faster before anyone can get a good look at you."

That's when I actually took a good look at some of the people. And guys, it freaked me out. Big time.

All of the people here had deathly pale faces and gray hair. It was like staring at a room full of Saint Danes. They all wore those grayish jumpsuits with the single black button on them like Kiah. This is when I figured out that if these people saw me I would look totally strange to them, like a mutant.

Luckily I followed Kiah into a different hallway, one which was emptied from people. It looked just like the first hallway we had come from but I trusted Kiah knew where she was going.

We stopped in front of one of the doors and Kiah pushed the button.

Then another strange thing happened. The door talked! It said "Identity confirmed. Kiah Motenia. Please enter."

Kiah looked at me and saw how freaked out I was. "Relax, Bobby. It is just a computer installed in the door to only let me in. Now come in, this is my home."

I followed Kiah into her home but then stopped. Because a terrible realization hit me. I guess I was just too amazed by everything to realize it sooner. This was no ordinary territory. This territory must be…Saint Dane's.


	3. Kiah's Story

Kiah looked back at me and said "Well Bobby? Is something wrong?"

"Kiah," I replied. "You've heard of Saint Dane, right?"

Kiah looked sad and sighed "Yes, Bobby I know him. Everyone here knows him. Come in, I will explain all."

We stepped into Kiah's apartment/home. I noticed right away it was very tidy and neat. The walls and ceiling were white. Instead of carpeting there were black floor tiles. There was also a shelf full of objects I didn't recognize and some purple potted plants in the corners.

But what caught my attention the most was a wide rectangular window that lined one of the walls. I couldn't believe what I was staring out into. Space. That's right, space! Outer space! I leaned against the window looking down, hoping to see some ground. But all I saw were some strange-looking objects flying around. I knew at once that they must have been spaceships.

"Kiah, what's going on?"

Kiah was also looking out the window. "Bobby, look over there."

Kiah pointed over to the right. I turned my head and was awestruck. Giant pieces of rock were orbiting in space and in the center of the rocks was a giant mass of rock. About three quarters of it had blown away. At the center of it was a gigantic, red ball of light. Strangely though, I could look right at it and not be blinded.

I began to ask "What is-

"That Bobby is Aploshion." Kiah interrupted.

I looked at her. I could see tears forming in her eyes as she turned her head away. "But Kiah," I asked. "That's impossible. That can't be Aploshion. I mean-

"It is!" Kiah said quickly. I could tell this was a subject that saddened Kiah, so I would have to choose my words carefully.

Kiah continued "Aploshion was destroyed sixteen years ago! And people here were too blinded and stupid to realize how much they were damaging it!"

I backed away a little. I could tell Kiah was getting very worked up about this.

I said in a calming voice, "Calm down Kiah. We don't need to talk about it anymore."

Kiah responded "But that's the point Bobby. You need to know what happened."

She motioned for me to sit in a shiny, silver chair. I sat down and Kiah sat down in another one. I was all ready to listen to this mysterious tale about her home world.

"Now Bobby, I must tell you what happened to Aploshion. As you could see, it is destroyed. You see, about seventeen years ago Aploshion was a fairly peaceful planet. People worked together with one another to build massive buildings and find cures for horrible diseases. Of course, there would be arguments and some mild wars but that is just the nature of things.

"Now there was also an element deep within the ground of Aploshion called Rephite. Rephite was used to power up vehicles and charge up robots. However, to get Rephite we had to send miners and robots to get it out. And they did a good job. People everywhere were able to get tons of Rephite. Life was almost perfect on Aploshion.

Kiah sighed. "But then one day the miners dug too deep. They hit another element similar to Rephite, called Semophite. Nobody knew what Semophite was back then so they just left it alone. However the Semophite would combust when touched with air and sunlight. Scientists realized this and also saw that there was so much Semophite the miners had stumbled on that all of it could destroy the entire planet! Luckily for us the Semophite would take months until it exploded. So with the advanced technology we had on Aploshion we could build massive space stations and send them into orbit just in the nick of time.

"Every citizen was loaded onto a space station. I can hardly remember it, being so young. But I remember the fear in everyone's' face. Aploshion blew up just days after we were all safely evacuated. For some reason the explosion didn't affect us in space. We were saved…

"So now sixteen years later life is still pushing forward. Some people even live on Aploshion's moon that was only partly destroyed. Even some people live on the huge pieces of Aploshion still in orbit. But most remain here on these space stations. Like me..."

Wow. Now that was a story. I felt totally bad for Kiah. I mean, imagine if that were to happen to Earth? I could imagine how devastating that would be. But I had a question.

"Kiah that is a terrible story. But I don't quite understand why the citizens of Aploshion are to blame?"

"Don't you see Bobby?" Kiah responded. "It's all about greed. The miners would have never dug down that deep if the fuel companies weren't only interested in their profits! The scientists had warned them to not go down that deep. But did they listen? No! Greed Bobby, it is all about greed."

I could see tears forming in Kiah's eyes. Heck, I didn't blame her. I was almost getting tears in my eyes! But one thing was still bugging me. It had been bugging me for a while.

"Kiah, I though there was only one Traveler from each territory. But you aren't the only Traveler here. What about Saint Dane?"

Kiah answered with a grim expression on her face. "Bobby, listen to me because this is important. Despite what you may have heard from others, Saint Dane is not a Traveler. He is a creation. A horrible creation…"


	4. Dr Shewin's Laboratory

"A creation?" I asked. "What do you mean Kiah?"

"Bobby, it's really hard to explain. In fact, all of this Traveler and Halla stuff is hard to explain! But now is not the time for explanations. I have told you enough for today."

Kiah stood up and beckoned me to follow her. She led me to this shiny, silver door in the corner. She pushed a button on the side and the door slid in to the wall. "You can stay in this room Bobby. I think we will both need a good night's sleep.

I yawned. I was feeling pretty tired. Another interesting thought came to mind. In space, how would people know when it is night or day? Boy, it sure made me wish I had my old watch with me.

I stepped into the dimly lit room and the door slid shut behind me. All that was in this room was a single bed and a window, in which I could look out at the shattered planet of Aploshion. I guess it had never occurred to me that the different territories weren't just the planets, they also included the space around them. So I guess that makes each territory more like a whole separate dimension. But I couldn't think anymore. I lay down on the bad and conked out in seconds.

Next morning, I had an odd wake-up call. Actually, I wouldn't call it odd. More like annoying. I was having an awesome dream about riding skimmers with Spader and Press. Then all the sudden my skimmer started shaking! I woke up. I realized it wasn't just in my dreams. My whole bed was shaking like crazy. I leaped onto the floor. I watched it a few seconds and after a few more seconds of vibrating like mad it died down.

I then heard a knock on the door. "Well, how did you like your wake-up call?"

It was Kiah. I could hear her laughing on the other side! "Is this how all you people wake up!" I exclaimed.

"Pretty much. Trust me, after a while you get used to it. It's better than those primitive chirping squares that I hear you use on Second Earth!"

She had a point. But it would definitely take some getting used to before I would appreciate it! A little slot opened at the bottom of the door and Kiah slipped in a shiny pair of grayish clothes.

"Well Bobby, even if we can't get your skin color right, at least you will be able to blend in more with these clothes." Kiah said.

I put them on and I noticed that button on the shoulder part again. I pushed it. All of a sudden the clothes started to squeeze tightly around me! Then a few moments later they released a little and I realized they had molded themselves to fit me perfectly. I had to admit out of all the futuristic territories I had been to, the technology here was tops, if not a little weird.

I pushed the button and the door opened. I walked out into the main room. Kiah was there and she was sitting in one of the silver chairs, looking at another odd Aploshion trinket. I walked over to her and couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was like a bluish transparent piece of paper and words were written on it. But there was a little scrollbar on the side and every time Kiah pushed the down arrow it would scroll down and more words would appear. It was like a super-thin computer!

Kiah noticed me watching in awe and said "This is a techsheet. You don't have these on Second Earth do you?"

Kiah then pushed a little X in the left-hand corner of the page and the techsheet went blank. She then put in a shiny black briefcase and said "I have a job as an assistant scientist to a man named Dr. Shewin. These are just some documents he gave me to read."

She closed the briefcase and said "I will introduce you to him today. But for now, we should eat the first meal."

Kiah motioned me to follow her into another part of the room where there were some cabinet doors that automatically opened to show boxes of bizarre-looking food. Kiah pulled out a green box and a red box. She said "I think this will be a good meal for you to start with. These foods are similar to Second Earth foods.

We sat at a silver table and she opened the boxes. In the green box there were little brownish circles that reminded me of peanuts. In the red box there were some orange rectangles. They both looked totally weird to me. Kiah loaded to plates with some and gave one to me. She then sat down across from me and pointed to the brown circles "Those are darenties," she said. She pointed to the green rectangles "And those are yooghs."

First I tried some darenties. They actually did kind of taste like peanuts from Second Earth except not as crunchy. Feeling confident, I picked up one of the yooghs and bit into it. It was awesome! It tasted like an apple from Second Earth only a little sweeter. It was then when I realized how hungry I really was and finished my plate well before Kiah finished hers.

"Is there a sink or something were I should put my plate?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it. The cleaning robots will take care of it."

Wow, everyone here had cleaning robot service too? That was awesome.

When Kiah finished she stood up and got her briefcase. "Well Bobby, I have to go help Dr. Shewin in his laboratory. You can come with me or stay here all day. What do you wish to do?"

Being cooped up here all day with the attacking beds and crazy cleaning droids didn't sound like much fun so I said "Are you kidding? Of course I'll go with you."

Kiah smiled and said "I think you will like Dr. Shewin." I then followed her out of her apartment and into the halls of the space station.

I still couldn't get over a lot of the new things I had learned yesterday. A whole planet exploding, giant space stations, Saint Dane a creation? It was just hard to grasp all this information at once.

We continued our silent walk to the science section of the station. The walls were now a metallic blue and I could hear minor explosions through some of the doors we walked past.

"This is the Agricultural Chemistry Department," Kiah explained. "The scientists here help to genetically enlarge vegetables and fruits so there are enough for everybody. I mean, without a planet food is hard to come by. Some farmers still live on the surface the Aploshion remains, growing food."

We turned a corner and walked down a new path. I read the overhead sign. It said **FUEL CONSTRUCTING DEPARTMENT**.

"This is where I work. The Fuel Constructing Department. You see although Aploshion lost all its valuable Rephite mines when it blew up people still needed fuel. We need it not only for the robots but for the spaceships and to support the space stations themselves. Dr. Shewin is a true genius. He discovered the quickest way to actually construct an excellent fuel compound without having to use a small sample of Rephite. He calls his new fuel compound Shewiphite. Ha, I admit he does have a bit of an ego. But I truly feel it is an honor to be his assistant."

We came to a door at the end of the hallway. Kiah pushed the button to side of the door and I heard a voice on the other end say "Oh, hello Kiah. Come on in."

The door slid into the wall and we walked in. I could tell at once that Dr. Shewin was a very serious scientist. Tons of test tubes and vials were on tables scattered all over the lab so it looked like Shewin liked to do chemistry experiments. They all had different colored liquids inside. One whole wall of the lab was a giant shelf containing thin, black boxes. I had no clue what was inside.

I also looked up at the ceiling. A thick mist was swirling around. I figured it had formed from all these different chemicals that Shewin had. It struck me then how dry and humid this room actually felt. Not unbearable, but it would take some time getting used to.

Then I saw at the opposite end of the lab was a giant window that looked out into space. It was an awesome view. I then followed Kiah to where a man was standing, pouring some blue liquid into a vial of green liquid. The man was like all the other people on Aploshion with pale skin and gray hair. He also had glasses which just added to his scientist look. I assumed this must have been Dr. Shewin.

"Ah, Kiah who is this you have with you?" Shewin asked.

"This is Bobby Pendragon. He is a friend of mine and he comes from Henethet."

Henethet? What did that mean? Well, Kiah was making up the story so I decided to just go with it. I could definitely tell that Shewin gave me a second glance. Probably because of my "weird" hair and skin color.

"Pleased to meet you Bobby" Shewin said. "If you are going to be my new assistant let me give you the tour of my lab."

Shewin led us through his maze of chemistry tubes and explained "Well, I trust Kiah has already explained a little to you. But Bobby, what we do here is construct fuel using different elements and compounds. However with the increasing population, people need more fuel. So I am currently trying to find a faster way to construct my Shewiphite. Believe me, it is a lot trickier than it sounds. Bobby, you can work with my other assistant Birt on research."

At this point a shorter man came through the mess of Shewin's laboratory. He wore a silver suit like everyone else except his was much dirtier. He had dirty gray hair, and I would guess to be in his early thirties.

He spoke in a sort of raspy voice that would seem to come from an old man "Hey Shewin. You finally came though with a new research assistant for me!" He seemed overjoyed at the thought of an assistant and I got to say, it was a lot better than the awkward stares of Dr. Shewin. At this point Shewin and Kiah walked back over to where a bunch of different liquids were stored into containers. As for me, I followed Birt to the other side of the room where the shelf containing the mysterious black boxes was.

Birt picked a small black box and set it down on a table. On the side of the box I read "Compounds of Meteorites from the Nejitian Sector". Birt explained "Okay Bobby, now to help Dr. Shewin we need to research through some of these techbooks to perhaps come up with a solution that will increase Shewiphite production."

Birt pushed a button and the thin, black box opened up. I saw that it had a techsheet in it. Birt pushed another button to turn it on. The title and a table of contents appeared on the screen.

He then gave me a single techsheet and said "Here, this is a formula. If any of the compounds equal double or more than any Metrosphynic elements then you need to find at least twice as many of the compound's opposite, including the Umnious version. And remember that if it is Metallic-Nejitian you need twice as many as the third Umnious version in the series. Got it? Good luck."

Wow. If any of that made sense to me right there I was ready to go back to First Earth and become Einstein's assistant instead! Even though I knew little chemistry I could tell that some of the terms Birt used were from Aploshion Science. So either way it was meaningless for me to understand Advanced Aploshion Chemistry. It also occurred to me that the people of Aploshion were probably more intelligent than Earthlings like me. Hey don't laugh guys, I got an A- in Algebra!

Anyways I pretty much just spent the whole day pretending to know what I was supposed to be looking for in these techbooks. We had a small "second meal" break in which Birt supplied me with some yooghs. I'm telling you it was like waiting for a long boring class to get over. There was a square that had digital numbers in it. I assume this was an Aploshion clock although unlucky for me they didn't use Earth time either. When I checked the clock it read 1.2, 7.8.

Eventually when I was starting to doze off Kiah came over and said "Bobby, ready to go?" I never had felt so relieved (well, maybe that's an exaggeration). I left with Kiah while Birt was explaining something he had found to Shewin.

Once we were out in the halls Kiah asked "How did your first day of work go?"

"Brutal," was all I could mutter. "Totally brutal."

Kiah gave a little giggle and said "I thought so. I'm sorry Bobby, just pretend like you know what you are doing and everything will go fine."

Gee. That was some great advice right there. Tired and weary we entered Kiah's apartment. She made to go get us some dinner. But I wasn't letting her off the hook that easy.

"Kiah, tell me the truth about Saint Dane." I said. I was almost getting mad now. I really wanted some answers.

Kiah sighed. "I'll tell you over third meal Bobby. Over third meal…"


	5. The Mystery of Halla

Third meal was another opportunity to try out some new Aploshion foods. For dinner we had obolpoches and gheratees. The obolpoches were crispy and tasted like a mix between steak and bacon. I could tell they must have been some type of meat (hopefully not human!). The gheratees were pretty much the same thing as bread except kind of orange. We also had some good old darenties with our meal.

It was a few minutes into our meal when Kiah spoke up "Okay Bobby, you're right. I owe you an explanation about how Saint Dane was formed. Well about a hundred or some years ago there was a great scientist named Dr. Dane. He was an extraordinary scientist although some people thought he was a dangerous man because his experiments were very dangerous and could cause great damage. But he was a genius. He invented such creations as the robot, spaceships, a lot of stuff that if hadn't been invented we'd probably all be dead today.

"But as Dr. Dane's reputation grew, his experiments grew more dangerous. But the Aploshion Council gave him tons of secluded space to set up a laboratory away from civilization. He pretty much kept to himself although he did have an assistant named Jevis.

"Well, I guess Dr. Dane eventually thought of a creation that was far unbelievable. He thought that with the robotic technology he already had along with some human DNA he could create a superhuman clone. Imagine it Bobby. Incredibly strong and helpful although never disobeying an order.

"Well Dr. Dane decided that it wouldn't be smart to test this on just any average person. Dr. Dane decided to test his machine on himself. To do this, he would need to cut off a whole finger. Yes it sounds crazy but he was willing to take that risk in the name of science. He also figured that once he got the process figured out better the DNA to create a clone could be as simple as a fingernail.

"So Dr. Dane cut off one of his fingers and put it into the machine. I don't know what the machine looked like but I guess he would need to wait half a day until his creation was complete. So after half a day Dr. Dane and Jevis gathered around the machine. The machine did have a box, as big as a shower that the clone was forming into. Then the box was smashed apart and out came Dr. Dane's clone. Dr. Dane had already picked out a name for his superhuman clone, Saint Dane.

"I hate to say though that Dr. Dane's time with Saint Dane was short. Saint Dane immediately picked up Dr. Dane and threw him across the room and into the wall. Jevis was horrified at seeing the death of his boss and quickly ran away. Jevis found a robot and recorded a brief message about what had happened. Saint Dane soon found Jevis and killed him too. The robot however escaped and with great speed returned the message to the nearest city the next week.

"Now as you could probably tell Saint Dane hadn't gained his intelligence yet. However Saint Dane's IQ points grew rapidly over the next few days until he had great intelligence too, more than Dr. Dane. Fifty years later though researchers found out what made Saint Dane so evil. I guess Dr. Dane had a bit of madness and unluckily, those were the brain cells that formed in Saint Dane. Madness can always turn into evil.

"Anyways not much is known after that. Some Aploshion Crime Patrol Scouts came back to the laboratory to find Saint Dane running away. He ran down into a bunch of short mountains that weren't too far away. I guess they followed him into a cave. But when they got there all they saw was Saint Dane shouting out the word 'Halla!' and disappearing into the darkness."

"A flume!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, a flume. Anyways wherever Saint Dane went that is where he learned most of what he does today. Nobody knows how he found the flume in the first place, what he saw at "Halla" that made him want to start his quest to destroy the territories or how he has the amazing ability to transform."

I was shaken. I never really thought that the story would truly be that simple and explanatory at the same time. Hey, I was expecting some story about magic and demons but I guess Kiah's story made a lot more sense. Sure, there were a lot of questions that neither me nor Kiah knew but at least I knew where he came from! I also felt kind of exclusive because I'm pretty sure even Uncle Press didn't know this story.

Uncle Press. You know, every time I think about him I can still get pretty weepy. I mean not to the point where I'm bawling out tears, but you know, pretty sad. It's just the thing that bothers me the most about Uncle Press is that he promised me that we would meet again. But I mean, I've visited a lot of territories and still no Press. I wonder if that's just something Press said to cheer me up before he died. But still, I know he wouldn't lie to me. I guess it's just gonna be another one of those unanswered questions, at least for the time being.

Anyways, sorry to break away from the story. After Kiah finished her story we were pretty much done with our third meal. I turned in to my cozy Aploshion bed about ten minutes later. It was still strange how there was no day and night here, just space. You pretty much need a few handy clocks around and since I had none that I could read I had to pretty much rely on what other people told me. I can't imagine how those NASA guys do it.

I had a vivid dream that night. I dreamt I was in Dr. Shewin's laboratory watching Shewin with one of his experiments when all of a sudden I saw Saint Dane appear out of one of the chemistry vials. Saint Dane then picked up Shewin and flung him across the room. I was horrified at the sight. Then Saint Dane saw me and started muttering "Halla, Halla, Halla, Halla…"

I then woke up shaking. I remember thinking that at first I thought I was in my comfy old bed on Second Earth. That feeling lasted about two seconds. I hate to say it and it makes me worried that I think my memories of my old life are starting to slip away. I mean a few days ago it took me a few moments just to remember my dog Marley's name. It's a scary thought because those are the memories I want to hold onto the most.

Anyways I tried to get back to sleep for a few minutes but those words kept itching back into my mind. "Halla, Halla, Halla…"

Of course I knew what Halla was. It was and is every time, place, thing, and event that ever existed or ever will exist. Of course that is just what I was told by my Uncle. But now that I have started to learn truths that I know Uncle Press could never have told me I was beginning to wonder if maybe, Halla could be something else as well.

There was one way to figure it out. I got up out of bed and stretched. Then I crept silently through Kiah's apartment to the entrance door that led to the hallway. I then pushed the button and when the door slid open, I crept through.

I was standing in the now dimly lit hallway. I hoped there wasn't any patrol robots around or else I would get busted really fast. I mean assuming that curfews existed on Aploshion.

If you guys haven't guessed it yet, I was on my way back to the flume. The flume I had entered only yesterday when I first came to Aploshion. I hoped I could still remember the way without getting lost.

I tiptoed through the eerily silent halls of the Aploshion Space Station. I entered the giant room with the fountain and purple plants. There were many halls to choose from so I walked around trying to find the angle at which we entered the room. I soon picked a hall that looked about right so I started to explore down it.

I gained more confidence when I saw that the turns were the same as the ones leading from the correct hallway. Sure enough I eventually got to a door which I finally got the chance to read. It read **KIAH MOTENIA STORAGE ROOM. **

I knew this had to be it. I pushed the button and a little laser shot out of it. It shot the red light directly in my eyes. I blinked and heard a computer from the door say "Identification: Bobby Pendragon. Access Granted." I smiled victoriously knowing that Kiah must have set this up in case I ever needed to leave Aploshion immediately and she wasn't there.

I stepped in and shut the door. I then saw the lonely flume and walked up to it. I took a deep breath and shouted out "Halla!" I waited a few seconds and realized that nothing was going to happen. No music, no lights, nothing. I guessed I was wrong and Halla really wasn't a territory. I was just about to leave when I saw something happen with the flume. It wasn't going to take me away but for a few seconds the flume shined a magnificent gold. Then after a few seconds it died and the flume returned to normal. I now knew something that made this whole little midnight adventure worthwhile. Maybe Halla wasn't a territory but there was definitely more to it than Press could have ever told me.


	6. Exploring Okil

The sneaking back to Kiah's apartment was uneventful and the biggest problem I had was remembering the way. Once I got back inside the apartment I went to sneak back into my room when I heard a voice call out "Bobby?"

I looked to my left and saw Kiah emerging from her secluded room. I couldn't make out her face at first because it was pitch-black but I could tell it was her.

"Bobby, what are you doing?" she asked and yawned.

"Uh... I was kind of exploring." I said embarrassingly.

Kiah looked at me quizzically. I quickly told her about my little quest to learn about Halla. She seemed to understand a little better and said "The flume shined gold? That means there is something about Halla that we were never told about by the last generation of Travelers. Maybe they didn't know either…"

While Kiah was contemplating this I felt tempted to ask Kiah "Who was the last Traveler from Aploshion? Before you I mean."

Kiah seemed a little sad and said "My uncle. His name was Pends. He was the one who took care of me after my parents died."

Whoa, Kiah's parents died? That was something she had never told me. I was about to ask her how they died without causing too much grief but she answered the question for me.

"They died in the destruction of Aploshion. They were both scientists and they joined a group of scientists who were desperately trying to save Aploshion from destruction. They stayed on Aploshion in its final hours once we had all been evacuating looking for a solution because they loved Aploshion so much…"

"My Uncle Pends took me aboard this space station during the evacuation. My parents had told him to do so. And in the chance that they died he was to look after me. Uncle Pends then trained me to be a Traveler. I believe from the stories that he told me that he and your Uncle Press were great friends. However a few years ago Pends was killed by Saint Dane. I don't know what was going on."

I yawned. It was then that I realized how tired I was and I think Kiah was pretty tired too. So we both retreated to our separate rooms for the remainder of the night.

The next morning I woke up with the crazy bed alarm again. I got dressed in normal Aploshion garbs and headed out to the main room. Kiah had already prepared breakfast and was eating at the table. I trudged over and took a plate of those little nut things called darenties. Kiah greeted me with a cheerful expression. I then remembered something I had meant to ask Kiah.

"Hey Kiah, yesterday at the lab you mentioned to Shewin that I was from Hene-something. What did you mean?"

Kiah then openly explained to me "Henethet Bobby? Well back in the days of the evacuation from the dying Aploshion they also built a space station for the poor titled Henethet. As you probably could have guessed, poverty existed on Aploshion too. But anyways I guess Henethet had been built cheaply and some of the citizens on board experienced some radiation from the explosion and such. So some of the people on Henethet have the same darkish skin like you do."

Well at least there were other people like me so I wasn't a total loner. I guess some people like Shewin just weren't used to seeing a lower-class citizen on board a middle-class station like this. Well, he would have to get used to it.

The rest of the week went by without much going on. I still just faked working the hours at Shewin's lab. To tell you the truth I felt stupid doing nothing and really wished I could help. In fact a few times I did try to help Birt but ended up either getting a headache from research or one time when we were helping cleaning up the vials, drop one and have a bunch of orange liquid come out and almost burn a hole through the floor. Eventually I just gave up and I think Birt knew that I didn't understand what I was doing at all. I was kind of embarrassed but Birt was sympathetic. He gave me easier tasks like rearranging the techbooks in alphabetical order on the shelves. Kiah also seemed embarrassed, not because of me but because I had to put up with seeming like a dunce.

One day we were walking through the halls of Okil (Okil is the name of the space station we were on if I forgot to mention it) and Kiah appointed me to go to a local shop and purchase some more techsheets while she was busy meeting with another fuel scientist named Dr. Kumare. I was happy to oblige and was eager to explore more of Okil since I hadn't yet seen much of it in the week that I had been here. Kiah gave me a list of a certain techsheet brand and the name of the shop that carries them. She then gave me directions and some Aploshion money and sent me off.

After a few moments I found myself in the giant main room of Okil. Many people walked about as usual. I saw a few stands carrying techsheets but they didn't have the specific type that stored more information like Kiah wanted. I took the time to look down on the list and on it said:

_Techsheet Brand 12_

_Kibo's Shop_

I easily remembered the directions Kiah had given me. I started walking down one of the halls and followed the correct intersections. I soon arrived at a door in the Eastern Market District which sure enough said: **KIBO'S SHOP. **

I pushed the button on the side and the door automatically opened. I was then greeted by an eccentric robot which said "Greetings and welcome to Kibo's Techsheet Emporium! Would you like to see our new bigger techsheets? We also have a Deluxe Techsheet Kit that has techsheets in seven different colors!"

I edged my way past the weird little guy and saw behind a sale counter was Kibo himself. He looked to be about in his early thirties and looked the same as all the other Aploshionians I had seen so far as far as basic features go. He was pretty tall, pale skin, gray hair. Kibo himself though, seemed about as eccentric and excited about making a sale as his little robot assistant did.

Kibo looked at me and announced "Hello there good sir! We have just the techsheets and techbooks that you need here! Did my assistant Dooty mention that we also carry new voice-activated personal techbooks? Very top-of-the-line if I do say so myself. Now please look around at our marvelous selection!"

I didn't want to look around his one-room shop because he had shelves and shelves of techsheets and techbooks. I just plain out asked him "Uh, do you have any Techsheet Brand Twelves?"

Kibo didn't take any time to hesitate. "Of course! It wouldn't be Kibo's Techsheet Emporium without them now would it?"

Kibo then led me to a shelf where he let me choose a big, fat stack of techsheets. I then paid for them and thanked him. As I left I heard him shout behind me "Don't forget to come again!" I was relieved that Kibo then turned his attention to a new customer that had just walked in.

I then stopped into a few of the other shops. I didn't buy anything but I was curious to look at some of the other technological marvels of Aploshion. I saw some awesome stuff including a sleek, silver chair that could hover about five feet above the ground, a strange object that looked vaguely like a light bulb except it was used for the same functions as a cordless telephone, and a complex burglar alarm system that would stun the criminal with jolts of electricity until the patrol robots arrived.

To a Second Earthling like me I found it almost a little disturbing of how much trust and authority the people of Aploshion gave their robots. Although maybe I was just freaked out because I had seen the movie "The Terminator" when I was like five years old. But I was young enough to get freaked out so much that I wouldn't even go near the TV, computer, or telephone for fear that they might come alive and attack me for the next few weeks. But the bottom line is I was actually getting used to the robots. I would pass them in the halls occasionally and I wouldn't notice them any different than I would a real human being. That's what scared me.

Eventually I returned to Kiah's apartment to find that Kiah was already back from her meeting with Dr. Kumare.

I gave her the bundle of techsheets and said "I guess that meeting wasn't too long."

Kiah looked at me in distress and said "The meeting never happened Bobby. Dr. Kumare is dead."

I was bewildered even though I had never met this Dr. Kumare. "Dead, how?" I asked Kiah.

Kiah said "Dr. Kumare was murdered. He was shot with a deadly shocker gun. I don't know how this could have happened. Dr. Kumare was Dr. Shewin's best friend and partner. This could jeopardize our whole research and put an end to Shewiphite."

Kiah looked very distressed and there was nothing I could have done to comfort her. I could have just walked away to my room to leave Kiah alone. That wouldn't have been cool. I just sat down with her on the couch and stared at the ground. At least she knew that my presence was still there in case she needed help. I have to admit that sitting there with her really did make me feel like the Lead Traveler. A leader.

That night was I was in a deep sleep. The beds on Aploshion were awesome and you could just sleep on them for days. Although this was also a bad thing because I was in such a deep sleep I didn't notice five robots sneaking into my room and lifting me onto a flat cart that hovered gently above the ground. I also didn't notice them sneaking me back out through Kiah's apartment and into the halls of Okil.

Then I finally woke up and realized I wasn't in my cozy bed anymore. Unfortunately before I could do anything one of the robots sensed I was awake and shocked me with one of its little robotic hands. My whole body went numb and I couldn't move or yell. It didn't feel weird or anything but I didn't have senses in any part of my body except my eyes and brain. I could still breath too so I didn't have to worry. Only wait to see where they were going to take me.

The little robot brigade and the hovering cart with me in it seemed to wander through the halls for at least half an hour. Then we finally stopped in a giant room. I couldn't look up until the robots finally shocked me gently again. I then regained all my senses and body functions.

What I saw when I looked around stunned me. This giant room was filled with cannons, guns, and missiles. This room must have been a weapon warehouse. All the guns looked nicely polished and I assumed that with all the other futuristic stuff on Aploshion I had seen so far those things didn't shoot bullets.

As the robots let me scan the room I then looked to the opposite end of the room about fifty feet away. There was a giant window where the whole wall section would have been and you could see a perfect view of the stars and some chunks of Aploshion.

The view was ruined by something that stood in front of it though. I recognized the figure at once. It was Saint Dane.

I grimaced as he chuckled and said "Long time Pendragon. Hope you haven't forgotten about me."

His eyes were burning with a menace that I had never seen before. He had a long, silver gun in his hand. He started to laugh his maniacal laugh again.

He then said "You can't beat me here Bobby and you know you can't. This is _my _home and I know it well. But Bobby I will save you the trouble of having to go through any more of your little heroic victories. Let's end this right here and now."

Saint Dane then grinned a bigger grin larger and more sinister than I had ever seen. He then aimed his gun at the wall and shot. A small but powerful lightning bolt shot out and hit the wall, leaving a black mark. I looked down to see that the robots had brought me an identical lightning gun from the shelf.

I had never technically fought Saint Dane and truthfully, I was dead scared to do it. But I could tell that Saint Dane meant business. The fight was on.


	7. Battles and Tragedies

I have been in a fair number of fights in my life. I fought a fellow human on Eelong, fought a few Bedoowan knights on Denduron, and had once gotten into a fight with Andy Mitchell back in the third grade. But nothing could have prepared me for this. And Saint Dane knew it…

Saint Dane first fired a few lightning shots at me and I ducked for cover. Then I found the trigger on my lightning gun and shot one back at him. Saint Dane had great dexterity and agility so he was able to dodge it without barely moving. But it gave me the few seconds I needed to jump to my feet.

So we just stood circling each other, guns pointed at each other. Then I don't know what happened but we both shot at the same time. Our lightning bolts met and created an explosion that knocked both of us off our feet.

Saint Dane quickly jumped up and fired several well-placed shots at me. I tried to scurry away on the ground, each shot barely missing my head or chest. Saint Dane then graciously gave me a brief few seconds for me to stand up before he pelted me again with numerous lightning bolts. I saw a stack of metal black boxes and chose to hide behind them.

Now normally this would have been crazy and when that lightning bolt hit I would have been toast. But remember, I wasn't on Second Earth anymore. Aploshion different laws of nature. I remembered when Saint Dane shot at the wall that it had absorbed the lightning. So little did Saint Dane know (or maybe he did) that he had given me a clue that had just saved my life.

The shot hit the boxes seconds after I ducked behind them. I was relieved when the lightning was absorbed by the metal boxes and I came out behind them to fire a few of my own shots back at Saint Dane.

If Saint Dane was at all surprised, he didn't show it. He did an awesome 360 flip backwards and landed on his feet, all of my shots hitting the wall behind him. I took the time though to back away further. I think Saint Dane could sense that I was scared so he gave up shooting for a few seconds and just grinned. I didn't know if our lightning guns had limited ammo or not but I was determined that if they did Saint Dane would go out before I did.

But I did fire one shot straight at his head. Saint Dane then surprised me by shooting one of his lightning bolts straight at mine. I was sure he was going to get caught in the explosion until I saw him leap away in the last second. I was mesmerized by the explosion for a few moments then turned to see Saint Dane standing right behind me.

I got so freaked out I stumbled backwards and fell while Saint Dane just lazily fired a few shots at me. I scurried up and began to back away again.

I knew I couldn't beat Saint Dane and I needed to circle around back to the door from which the robots and I had entered. Maybe there was a chance that the door was unlocked, though I doubted Saint Dane would be that foolish.

Saint Dane grinned and as if reading my mind said "Looking to escape Pendragon? Well, let me end your torment."

Saint Dane then looked above me at the ceiling above my head and shot a lightning bolt at it. I quickly looked up and saw that I was standing below a giant fluorescent light. Before I could react it was struck by the lightning and came crashing down. I tried to escape but it fell and nailed me to the floor. I then fell unconscious, hearing Saint Dane's maniacal laugh slowly fading…

* * *

When I finally woke up I could tell something was wrong. I wasn't still on the ground of that weapon room where Saint Dane and I had been battling earlier. No, I was lying on a small, blank, metal bed. I stood up and then saw that I was in a prison cell! Yeah, I was in a tiny prison cell and instead of bars there was a giant glass screen. But the glass was so tough I knew I would never get through it.

I looked around outside my cell. Other cells lined the hall as far I could see, which wasn't very far. Some of the cells had people in them, some were empty. The people in them looked sullen faced and depressed. I was so confused at first that I laid back down in the uncomfortable bed and rubbed my eyes, wondering if this was all just a dream.

But bad news for me because it wasn't and a few seconds later I heard a sharp knock on the glass. I looked up and saw that a small robot was waiting there with a tray of food. I looked at him blankly for a few seconds, wondering if he noticed that I was concealed behind an unbreakable glass wall.

But then the robot finally spoke up and said "Greetings Prisoner 089. Would you like your first meal?"

I asked quizzically "Where am I? What is going on?"

The robot then replied "You are in the Official Okil Prison Cells. As for 'what is going on' I'm afraid you will need to state your question more precise."

The Okil Prison? What was I doing there! I then asked "Okay then, why am I here?"

The robot answered "I am sorry but I am just a meals unit. Perhaps you should ask one of the human guards. Would you like your first meal?"

I answered yes and the robot pushed some button on the outside of my cell that I couldn't see and a little flap opened up in the middle of the wall. The robot then slid my breakfast (first meal) into my hands. It was just a bowl of some simple darenties. The robot then left to deliver first meals to the other prisoners.

I ate my darenties slowly on my metal, hard bed contemplating how I could have gotten into this cell. The last thing I remembered was the fight with Saint Dane. I didn't know how long I had been unconscious but I guessed for a few hours maybe.

I wondered if Kiah had noticed I was gone. Of course, she must have. I was a Traveler and a Lead Traveler for that matter. I don't mean to sound self-centered but if anything had happened to me and I had been killed it would have been devastating for the other Travelers and territories. I was sure that eventually Kiah would walk past and free me from this crappy cell. But she didn't and eventually after what seemed like hours, I fell back asleep.

I was then later awoken by two Aploshion guards walking down the hall talking to each other. They were slowly walking towards my cell. When I listened close I could just make out what they were saying.

One guard was telling the other "It really is incredible that such a small and sickly-looking person could have caused such a devastating feat. I mean don't get me wrong, it is truly a sickening tragedy, but still incredible that it could have happened."

The second guard said "Aye, Burbos but I had friends on that station! Believe me, if I get the chance I will make sure that little demon has a nice, slow death."

The first guard who must have been Burbos told the second one "You know Malakali, some early researchers and investigators are saying that he was just insane. We'll just have to wait for the interrogation later. But I mean, for that young of an age to have…"

Burbos and Malakali stopped talking as they passed my cell. I pretended to be asleep but I could tell that they were probably looking at me. Burbos and Malakali didn't talk anymore and eventually I could no longer hear their footsteps as they trailed further away down the hall.

Now I was just down-right scared. Was that me that they were talking about? Whatever had happened sounded like it had happened quite recently and as if it was something terrible. I would just have to wait for more answers, which I was sure would come soon. Luckily this time I didn't have to wait long.

About ten minutes later I was greeted by a friendly face at the glass. I saw that Kiah had found my cell and was immediately punching in some buttons on the outside wall, hopefully to get me free. I saw that she did not have her usual friendly face though and was instead replaced with a more serious, determined face. She didn't smile when she looked at me. But I didn't care, I would just be happy to get out of there.

Sure enough, a few moments later my glass barrier slid open and Kiah whispered to me "Quick Bobby, we must make haste."

I followed her down the hall to a single, silver door. As I passed the other prison cells I looked at the prisoners in them. Most wore dirty clothes and looked as if they hadn't cleaned in days. Some of them snarled at me showing their jealousy of my obvious escape while others just looked at me calmly and nodded their approval.

Once we had gotten to the door and opened it I saw that it was a small elevator. Kiah and I stepped in and she pushed a button on the wall that made the elevator start to go up.

Kiah gave a breath of relief and said "I'm glad you're safe Bobby. But you must explain to me what happened. I just know it couldn't have been you but…oh, I'm so confused."

I just replied "Hey Kiah I'm just as confused as you are. I'll explain my story as soon as we get somewhere safe okay?"

Kiah considered this a moment and nodded in agreement. Then the elevator stopped and the shiny doors slid open. We stood in a big, empty room with a few desks lined up along the left side of the room. I followed Kiah as we hurried through the room and as we left the room I noticed a sign that said: **OFFICIAL OKIL PRISON COMPLEX A. PRISON CELLS BELOW**.

As we stepped out into the familiar white hallways of Okil I heard Kiah mutter to herself "Well, at least most people will be in their homes."

As Kiah started to walk away I caught up to her and asked "Why Kiah? What's going on?"

But Kiah would say no more only put a finger to her lips to silence me. We must have walked through different halls of Okil for at least half an hour. Every time we would reach a corner or intersection Kiah would peek around the corner to see if anyone was coming. By this time my fear had overtaken my curiosity so I kept my mouth shut.

We finally came to Kiah's recognizable apartment. We stepped in and Kiah quickly shut the door. Kiah then pushed a button and spoke to the mysterious computer that was in her door. She said "Please cancel all cleaning robots for today. Thank you."

The computer in the door then said "Yes order confirmed."

I followed Kiah as she sat down on her silver couch and I sat in one of the silver chairs. Kiah then said "Well Bobby, if you honestly haven't heard the news yet let me explain it to you. A terrible tragedy has happened to the people of Aploshion. Last night, one of the closest space stations to us, Nexelake, was hit by a fired missile from Okil. The whole space station blew up and everybody on it died. Yes that's right, not one survivor on a station carrying over a million people.

"Well immediately Aploshion security and investigators went to go check out the giant room over in the west complex that holds most of the weapons for our space station. And when they got there, well they found you lying there unconscious. They then checked all the missile turrets overlooking the giant window in that room. Sure enough one of the turrets was missing a missile.

"They then looked to see who pressed the button to launch the missile at Nexelake by checking for a fingerprint on the button. They found your fingerprint on that button! Bobby please, you didn't do it, did you?"

"No! Of course not!" I replied horribly confused and almost dazed from this terrible conclusion to the tragedy.

But then a realization hit me. I thought it over in my mind for a few moments and it all made sense. And my realization made me enraged and furious.

"Saint Dane," I muttered.

"What Bobby?" Kiah asked in question.

"Saint Dane did this! It all makes sense!"

I quickly went over my story with Kiah about last night's events and then concluded by saying "So don't you see Kiah? Once I was unconscious Saint Dane morphed into me and fired the missile himself. Remember he can change into people? After he did that it would have been easy to remove the fluorescent light that had fallen on me and made it look as if there had been no fight."

Kiah ran this through her head and questioned "But why would Saint Dane do something like this Bobby?"

"Because he's evil," I replied simply. "But I'm sure this wasn't just about making my life a living hell and destroying countless lives like the heartless demon he is. I'm sure he had his reasons for wanting Nexelake to be destroyed. Although I doubt these reasons will be discovered for a long time."

Kiah was thinking to herself. She then said "Well then the question is what do we do now? I mean it's obvious we can't stay on Okil any longer. I mean after they realize you are gone you will be the most wanted person on all of Aploshion Bobby. Right now most people are still in a state of shock so if we are to escape, now is the time."

Yes, I was now a wanted criminal. An even harder conflict to cope with besides the fact that I didn't blend in with the people here. I had to decide on something that would probably save my life and I didn't have much time to do it. But I was the Lead Traveler. It was my _duty_ to decide something. Because right now, _that was the way it was meant to be_.


	8. The Escape

**A/N: Okay well, obviously I started this story before Rivers of Zadaa came out. But now that it has, a lot of things have changed in the Pendragon series. So in order for this story to make more sense, let's just say that this takes place after the events on Eelong.**

I was freaking out. Actually, that's an understatement. I was terrified! A lot of crazy things have happened to me in my Traveler life but I can tell you, I have never been on a territories most wanted list.

Kiah was right. If we were going to try to escape from Okil, now would be the time. People were confused and Okil security had told all citizens to remain in their homes until further notice. It had been about half an hour since we had gotten back to Kiah's apartment. I was pacing back and forth while she was sitting on her couch, doing some quick planning.

"So remind me again, why can't we take the flume out of here?" I asked.

"Because," Kiah said, though I could tell her thoughts were elsewhere. "Okil security will be patrolling the whole station. That giant room that we always pass to get to the flume will be one of the most heavily guarded places. And besides, even if we did use the flume, we would still need to come back here."

"And we would wind up right back in Okil," I concluded. "Okay, I understand about the flume, but what about that giant room that pretty much is the center of the station. Won't we need to get through there anyway to get to…wherever we're going to go?"

Kiah then stood up and I saw in her eyes that she looked ready to go. "I know some shortcuts."

I smiled weakly and followed her out the door. It was probably the last time I would see her apartment in a long time. We stepped outside into the familiar hallway and immediately went on full alert for any guards. If we got caught, it would be the end of us trying to save Aploshion from Saint Dane. I would probably get locked up for life, assuming that they don't have the death penalty on Aploshion. Kiah would also be labeled as an accomplice and would probably get the same fate as me.

There would be nothing left to keep Saint Dane from taking Aploshion. The other Travelers wouldn't know we were in trouble because Okil security would probably take all our belongings away. That would include our Traveler rings, which were crucial for communication. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how perfect this all was for Saint Dane.

Kiah and I started walking quickly, but cautiously down the hallway. I had no clue as to where we were going and I figured I had a right to know, so I asked Kiah "So what are we going to do?"

Kiah answered "Well, it's a very risky plan but it's the best I can think of. It's actually a fairly simple plan really. What we are pretty much going to do is sneak into the docking area, steal a spaceship, and fly to Aploshion's moon, where I don't think they will be able to trace you. Plus, I have a friend there and if we explain to him your story, I think he will let us stay with him."

Wow. That really was a risky plan! But as Kiah said, it seemed like the best we had. I just hoped that Kiah knew how to fly a spaceship.

We continued walking for another fifteen minutes I'd say, when we then came to a giant set of steel doors that stood probably about 10 feet. A sign clearly said **APLOSHION DOCKING AREA**.

"How are we going to get in?" I asked.

Kiah opened up a side panel next to the door and I saw she was pushing in buttons to which I assumed was a password to open the doors. The whole password was really long and it probably took her about a minute to complete.

But then the giant doors slid slowly into the wall. I then saw a large hallway and I followed Kiah down it. The hallway opened up into different spaceship docks, which were huge rooms that looked out into space. The rooms were all numbered with A1, A2, A3, and so on.

As we kept on walking I asked Kiah "How did you know the password to get into the docks?"

"I was prepared Bobby. Before I rescued you from the cell, I mapped out our whole escape plan. It turns out that Birt used to be an Okil Docking guard. When I explained the situation to him, he believed me and was more than willing to supply us with the password to get in."

Wow, Birt sure was a great guy. I wondered if I would ever see him or Dr. Shewin again. It didn't look too likely right now, but anything was possible.

After we passed dock A9 we started getting into the B's. Kiah told me "We're looking for dock B8. I think that is where they keep the extra spaceships, just in case."

I nodded and with each step I was gaining confidence. We were actually going to pull this off! It seemed strange though, that we hadn't run into any guards yet. I assumed that they were all probably watching over the citizens. But they must have realized that I had escaped from my cell. So wouldn't they figure that I would try to escape through the docks?

We finally came to dock B8. I peered in and sure enough, there were about twenty empty spaceships all lined up facing a giant glass wall which separated the dock from space. We cautiously took our first steps into dock B8…..and fell into a trap.

Immediately, four Okil security guards grabbed us and another ten had their electro-guns pointed at our heads. Standing in the middle of the ten guards was a lady with her hands on her hips and a smug, yet serious expression on her face. She had typical Aploshion features and I would guess she was in her thirties. Her gray hair was short and just barely touched her neck.

The four guards that held me and Kiah tightened their grip on us to make sure we didn't try any crazy escape moves. Yeah right, like we would really do that while there were ten guys with guns pointed at our heads.

The lady then spoke to us. "Well, we've caught the two mass murderers trying to escape. Please, do you really think we didn't see this coming? You chose the most obvious and predictable path of escape. Did you really think you would get away with it?

"Anyways, my name is Ferha Gorin, junior captain of the Okil security forces. Although, after I turn in you two I just might become senior captain!"

I tried to speak. "Ferha, please…you don't understand. I'm innocent!"

Ferha sighed and looked at me with pity like I had the intelligence of someone much less than her standard. "I'm afraid the evidence points against you, little boy. I doubt the judges on the trial will share much sympathy for you either, especially now since you've tried to escape."

As I looked at the ground in despair, I knew we had lost. I tried to look at Kiah and saw that she actually had tears in her eyes. A day ago she was the prided assistant of a very famous scientist, now she was reduced to no more than a petty criminal. I felt sorry for her and couldn't help feeling that this was partly my fault.

"Well, take this scum away," Ferha said with a tiny smile on her face. "They will pay for what they did to Nexelake."

It was then that it happened. It happened so suddenly, at first I was completely clueless to what was going on. Right after, Ferha said her last words to us the guards moved to take me and Kiah away. But then, a big explosion rang out! The guards who were holding us let go and ducked for cover. I grabbed Kiah and ducked down as well. Were we under another attack just like the one that had happened on Nexelake!

Then after a few moments, it stopped. I raised my head a little to see what exactly had happened. One whole side of dock B8 was destroyed. Pieces of the wall had fallen and hit some of the guards and it looked like a few small pieces had pelted Ferha. As I watched, it didn't look as if any of the guards had died, just been knocked unconscious.

Who had done this? I got to my feet and helped Kiah to hers. She looked terrified at what had just happened. We were both covered with bits from the wall and I brushed us both off.

But then I saw the culprit of the explosion. I was looking at the huge section of wall that had been blown up and I saw a hunched over form of a person move quickly from it. I ran up to them determined to catch them. I ran until I was almost close enough to tackle them…and stopped.

It was Birt! I was stunned and as I opened my mouth for words, nothing came out. Kiah, who wasn't as fast of a runner as I was, trailed from behind and came ran up to us, out of breath.

"Birt?" she exclaimed confused.

Birt gave a weak smile and said "I'm sorry Kiah, but I had to do it. It's your only chance to escape. So go now, for you two are the only ones who can save Aploshion from Saint Dane!"

What? How did Birt know about Saint Dane? Kiah looked as if she had the same question and Birt explained.

"I'm sorry that I never told you sooner but…I was your Uncle Pends' acolyte. I know all about what has been going on and how our friend here-"he motioned at me "isn't exactly from around here."

I smiled. "Yeah, I'm from Second Earth."

Birt smiled and nodded "Then it is even more important that you escape. So go now!"

I looked over at the guards. A few of them were starting to stand up, including Ferha! Birt was right, Kiah and I had to leave!

I started to take Kiah and run to one of the spaceships when Birt said "Oh and Bobby,"

I turned around. "Yeah Birt?" I asked.

"Watch over Kiah for me. I know her uncle would say the same thing. And Kiah, help Bobby. Both of you must take care of each other!"

I smiled at him and said "Thanks Birt, for everything. Goodbye."

Kiah and I started to run to the spaceship. By now, almost all the guards were standing up again and beginning to realize what was going on. We were halfway to the spaceship when I heard Ferha shout "Stop him!"

At first I thought she was talking about me but as I turned my head around I saw she was pointing at Birt. I stopped for a second and was about to yell "Birt run!" when one of the guards took out his electro-gun and shot Birt right in the chest. Immediately, Birt fell down. It looked to me as if he was surely dead.

Kiah screamed "No!"

As sad as this was, we couldn't stop. Now was our chance! I grabbed Kiah's hand and we sprinted to the spaceship.

The spaceship was bright, shiny silver. I'd say it was as big as maybe a Volkswagen Beetle. It kind of had the shape of a rounded diamond. There was a cockpit big enough for two people at the front of the ship. Then it had two points at the sides that stuck out a little and each held what I figured worked like turbo boosters and would make us go faster. Then at the back of the ship there was a massive engine which I could see would hold a giant flame, just like a rocket. On the side of the ship it had a little insignia of a circle with a triangle in it and words that said **OKIL STATION**.

The ship had two side doors like a car. I tried to open the one on the left and thankfully saw that it was unlocked. I got in quickly and slid into the seat on the right. Kiah got in the seat on the left and shut the door. Also like a car, I saw that all the controls to pilot it were on the left side. That was good because I didn't know the first thing about flying an Aploshion spacecraft. Heck, I didn't even know how to pilot an Earth spacecraft!

But Kiah knew what she was doing and immediately powered it on. I heard the engine starting to roar up already. Kiah then grabbed a steering wheel and pushed a few buttons. It looked like we were ready for takeoff!

Kiah told me as she pressed a big green, button "This button will send a signal to the computers operating the glass sealing wall to open it so we can get out into space. If the sealing wall is open for a few moments, there will still be enough gravity on the station to make sure things don't go haywire. But if the sealing wall is open for long periods of time, well things could get a little messy."

The sealing wall was, of course, the giant glass wall that separated this dock from the vast, space beyond. But I saw it was starting to open. Kiah moved the spaceship forward and we were almost out into space when the guards started shooting at us!

I felt the lightning bolts hit our ship and I saw a few fly past us outside. I'll bet Ferha wasn't too happy about us leaving but I doubt she was going to get this close us when we were about to blast into space.

But I wasn't foolish enough to believe that she would just let us get away. Nope, as I looked behind us in a little reflector mirror I saw that her and all her guards were hopping into their own spaceships and starting to follow us.

And as we finally got into space and Kiah hit full throttle I knew that things weren't going to get easier yet. Nope, on the contrary, they were about to get harder.


	9. Certio

I looked behind us in the mirror again and saw fifteen spaceships following us at top speed. They were in a V-formation with Ferha at the lead. She wanted to catch us bad and she wasn't going to let a silly little thing like space stop her.

I watched Kiah maneuver the steering wheel of the spaceship with ease. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was probably no more difficult than driving a car and they both looked to function about the same.

Ferha and the other Okil security were gaining on us. I looked nervously to Kiah and she looked to be fretting just as much as I was. We were already going at top speed, we just needed to find a way to shake them off.

I looked out the side window and tried to spot any good spots where we might be able to evade them and escape to the moon, which was directly ahead of us. Luckily, there were a lot of asteroid fields around, pieces of rock which had probably once been part of the planet Aploshion. I also saw a few other distant space stations in the far, far distance which looked to be about the same size as Okil. I figured they had probably gotten the recent news about Nexelake as well.

Kiah was vigorously swerving left and right in the space ship, but I think we both knew that that wouldn't be nearly enough to stop Ferha. I suggested to her "Kiah, why don't we hide ourselves in one of those small asteroid fields?"

Kiah shook her head as if she had already discarded that idea. "They have small trackers in those asteroid fields that would still detect us. They were placed there a decade ago, mainly to stop criminals who had stolen spaceships and tried to hide there."

It sounded to me as if stealing a spaceship here was as to criminals on Second Earth having getaway cars. If you had committed a robbery or murder on a space station, obviously you couldn't just stay on that station. Just like Earth, I'm sure Aploshion had its share of criminals too. So for the Okil security, they had probably tracked down and caught countless numbers of Aploshion criminals trying to get away. Maybe they were even trying to get to the moon like we were.

I tried to keep my calm and think as I told Kiah "Well, we have to do something soon or else it's looking like we're going right back to the Okil prison!"

"I know, I know!" Kiah snapped. "But there's nothing-"

Kiah's face then lit up with an idea. Curious, I asked "What is it?"

Kiah immediately swerved the wheel and our spaceship shot to the left in a totally different direction. Ahead of us, several miles away, was the destroyed station of Nexelake. We were headed right towards it and behind us I'm sure Ferha and the others were as well.

Kiah explained as we shot closer and closer to Nexelake. "Nexelake is a huge station Bobby, bigger than Okil. Now that it's all destroyed I believe we might be able to hide ourselves in all of the floating wreckage. I think the salvage teams have just started to come and I doubt they will know anything of our escape."

"So wait," I replied trying to understand all this. "You think we can hide from Ferha in the Nexelake ruins? How long will Ferha keep looking? You know she's going to make the salvage teams help her."

"Oh, I know," Kiah said. "But it's our only chance." Then as an afterthought, as if Kiah was saying this to reassure herself she added "Like I said, Nexelake is huge. There will be many spots to hide and we'll blend in easily."

As we stopped talking we began to enter the remains of what was just yesterday a thriving, glorious city. I didn't have time to look at the wreckage though as we were still going close to top speed. Kiah began to duck and swerve around some of the giant pieces of the station. As I kept looking back I saw that we had actually lost a few of them.

"Kiah!" I exclaimed. "There are only seven of them left. Keep going!"

Kiah actually smiled at me and said "No problem."

Man, this girl could fly. I was holding on to the edge of my seat as Kiah excellently maneuvered the spaceship. It was like being on a roller coaster ride. I estimated that the wreckage went on for a couple of miles so we had plenty of space to lose them in.

As I looked on I saw some big yellow spaceships with cranes on the top and big, huge steel boxes. I guessed that these were the salvagers who were sent to pick through the remains. Sure enough, I saw a few men in yellow spacesuits actually standing and climbing on some of the pieces, looking for anything that could be saved. As I watched them I thought sadly that this was a mess that could take a few years to fully clean up.

But the saddest thing that I tried not to think about as we went was how many people had died. What had I been told, millions? The thought that Saint Dane could take a millions of lives all at once sickened me and made me want to puke. Not that I ever thought he wasn't evil enough to do it…but I guess just seeing it in reality put things in perspective for me. The last time I had seen something truly this awful was the habitat of Magorran on Cloral. But even though that was bad, this was even more people. Which made it all the more worse.

After a few more minutes I looked out the rear view mirror again and almost laughed out loud. We were down to only three security members, even though Ferha was still at the lead. I excitedly told Kiah the news and even though she looked happy she said "Well, we've still got to shake off Ferha and that's going to be the hardest part."

I nodded my head in agreement. Ferha was not going to give us up at any cost. I think she must have been furious because we were right in her grasp back at Okil and we still managed to get away, thanks to Birt. But as much as I wanted to escape from Ferha I couldn't help respect what she was doing. When she looked at us, she saw a couple of psychotic mass murderers. And no matter how much explaining I did, she would never believe that the person who had really destroyed Nexelake was an evil demon who had changed into me so I would get framed for it. Not a very good alibi.

But then everything got worse. Ferha and her two soldiers started to shoot at us! I first noticed when I heard a loud bang and felt the side of our ship shake. I looked back and sure enough, the three had tiny cannons that came out of the sides of their ships, which they were using to fire laser blasts at us.

I immediately got frantic and told Kiah "They're shooting at us! They must have given up trying to catch us and now they just want us dead!"

Kiah looked just as worried. "This isn't good. One of their shots hit one of our boosters! I'm going to have to slow down or we might fly out of control."

As the shots kept firing at us, our ship shook more and more. This was crazy! I wasn't comforted when Kiah shrieked "They hit part of our engine!"

Then another blast hit my side of the ship and I got thrown into the control panel. Everything got dizzy and I started to lose consciousness. Kiah looked terrified when she saw me. Several more blasts came at once and rocked our ship vigorously. One of the big yellow crane ships was coming towards us. Then I blacked out and didn't remember anything more.

* * *

I don't remember how long I was asleep. But when I awoke I found myself staring up at a light blue ceiling. Pictures of stars were scattered across it. I was also lying in a very comfy bed. I laid there for a few minutes, staring up at the ceiling until it all came back to me. Nexelake, the chase, firing at us. I sat up in bed immediately and my head throbbed. I then remembered that my head had crashed into the control panel and I had blacked out. But where was I now?

I gazed around the room I was in. Light blue, shiny, metallic walls surrounded me. There wasn't much else in the room except a door (obviously), a dresser, and a small desk beside the bed on which a clock sat that read 6.3, 0.1.

For a second I actually thought that when I blacked out Ferha captured us and now I was back on Okil. I started freaking out but then realized that if Ferha had caught us, I didn't think she would put me in this cozy little room.

Now I was more confused than ever. Where was Kiah? What had happened? Well, I was too curious to go back to sleep so I hopped off the edge of the bed and stood up. I looked and saw that I was still in my typical Aploshion clothes. I walked up to the door and pushed the big button right next to it. I was relieved when the door slid open. At least I wasn't locked in.

I stepped outside the room and found myself in a small silver hallway. Uh-oh. I was getting some bad Okil vibes. What if I really had been captured and they decided to put me in a nice room before my execution? I looked down either ends of the small hallway. There were two doors opposite each other on the left side and one door on the right side.

Cautiously I headed right to the single door. When I got there I saw it was already open so I peeked inside. A short Aploshion man stood there reading something on a techsheet. He immediately saw me and rushed over to where I was standing. My first thoughts were to run away in case he was a guard but instead he eagerly shook my hand and said "Well rise and shine there young lad. Kiah told me it would be a while before you awoke."

Well, he was a friendly guy. I opened my mouth to say something but he continued "I'll bet your right confused now. Well don't worry, I'll fill you in. By the way, my name's Certio. Certio Nadd."

He motioned me into the room and I saw that it was a kitchen. Something smelled great and Certio said "You must be hungry. Come now, take a seat."

He motioned me to sit at a small, round table. I felt like I should thank him so I said "Thank you Mr. Nadd. My names Bobby Pendragon by the way."

"Oh you don't need to thank me. I'll always help Kiah and her friends, especially in her time of need."

Like I said Certio was a short guy with all the usual Aploshion features. He looked to be in his fifties. Unlike all of the people I had seen previously on Okil he wore rusty brown colored clothes. Which made me feel that I was definitely not on Okil anymore.

Certio brought me a plate of some odd looking green meat but when I tasted it was delicious. While I was eating Certio sat down at the table as well and said "So from what Kiah has told me, you two had a pretty busy day yesterday."

Was that how long I had been asleep? A day? I nodded and said "Yeah, tell me about it. But you have got to believe me, I didn't destroy Nexelake!"

Certio smiled and said "I believe you, although I'm sure most people won't. Anyways, it looks like you'll be staying here for a while."

"But where is 'here'?" I asked.

Certio explained "You're on the moon, Bobby. As I'm sure you know some people have farms on the moon. I'm one of them."

"So you're a moon farmer?" I asked trying to understand. "But how can you grow food."

"We have indoor greenhouses that grow all the crops and then we transport them to the different space stations." Certio continued. "I make a trip out to Okil about once every month."

Wow, that was weird. Even though Certio called himself a farmer, technology was doing all the work for him. I would be very interested to see the process that moon farmers did to grow their crops. It seemed way different from regular Earth farmers. But heck, I was just glad to be on the moon. Like Kiah said, the moon was a safe place to hide.

Thinking of Kiah I decided to ask "Where is Kiah, Mr. Nadd?"

"Please Pendragon, call me Certio. Anyways, Kiah dropped you off here and told me to look after you while she had a few more things to clear up."

That was odd. I was dying to know how we had escaped from Ferha. When I fell unconscious it had seemed like we were doomed. Maybe Certio knew the answers.

I asked Certio "Did Kiah tell you how we escaped?"

Certio shook his head with disappointment and said "No, she seemed to be in a hurry. She told me she would be back soon though. Say would you like to see my farm?"

"Yeah, that sounds cool," I told him. We stood up and Certio led me to the farms.

I looked around as we walked down the hallway to the left and I noticed that while this place still had the essence of Aploshion culture it was very different from Okil. It was like being in a different country almost. I couldn't help feeling as if my first chapter of living on Aploshion was over. A new one was starting.


	10. Moon Farming

Certio turned to face the door on the left and pushed the button at the side. The door slid open and we stepped into an enormous room. Certio grinned at me and said "This is my life, right here."

The room was filled with rows and rows of growing crop patches. I would say that the entire room was about the size of a football field, maybe a little shorter. Remember guys, this was all indoors so each crop patch had a few small sprinklers above it to give the crops water. It now made a whole lot more sense how farming could get done on the moon.

Certio and I had stepped onto a large platform that I saw had a large row of control panels. Certio saw me looking at them and said "Those are how I run the farm. When each crop patch needs water, when it needs more sun, new soil, it's all controlled through these panels. Let me demonstrate."

Certio walked over to one of the control panels and pushed a blue button. Immediately I saw a crop patch in the corner had a sprinkler go on and start watering it. This was amazing. Certio was almost more of a scientist than a farmer. His job involved much more thinking than physical labor. He had to calculate when each crop patch needed to be watered, when it was ready to be harvested, and I 'm sure a lot more things too. It just reminded me how smart people on Aploshion were.

Certio looked at me to see if I was impressed. I was and said "This is awesome. How many crop patches are there?"

"Over a hundred," Certio said. He then added "You can help me with the farm if you want Pendragon. You'll be staying here a while after all."

I nodded and told him I would. Then we left the farm area and I told Certio that I was feeling tired again and was going to go take a nap. He nodded and told me he would keep a look out for Kiah.

Later back in my room, I sat down at the desk and started writing more of my journal to you guys. Journal writing was becoming a thing that I pretty much did whenever I got a chance. I wrote a lot back in Kiah's apartment when she had extra work to do for Shewin. Now I wrote down my whole adventure that had happened with Nexelake. It was almost impossible to believe that it had all happened yesterday.

I was disrupted a few hours later by a knock on my door. I said "Come in," and the door opened.

In stepped Kiah, looking very tired and exhausted. We were both overjoyed to see each other and I immediately got up and hugged her. She smiled and said "I'm so glad to see you awake again Bobby. I was afraid you had fallen into a coma."

"I'm fine Kiah," I assured her. "But how are you? Where have you been? How did we escape?"

Kiah shook her head and said "One question at a time, Bobby. Anyways, I'll explain it all to you."

I sat back down on the chair next to the desk and she sat down on the bed. Then Kiah started to explain to me "Okay, let me find where to begin."

She thought for a moment and then said "Well, when you were unconscious I noticed a yellow salvaging ship moving towards us. My first thoughts were to run away but as they got closer I received a transmission from the ship. It was an old friend of mine from Okil Academy, Deak Waker! He was very confused when he heard my voice reply but I begged him to help me escape from the Okil security and I would explain everything to him later.

"He obliged and got his salvage team to move in the way of Ferha, just enough time for us to escape. Then when I found a safe hiding spot, I responded to Deak that I was safe. When Ferha started yelling at Deak for getting his ship in the way Deak calmed her down and told her where we were. Then Deak met up with us and I think I we were safely to the moon by the time Ferha realized she had been fooled.

"Then I spent the today with Deak, getting our ship fixed in case we need it again and trying to scrap up any information involving Saint Dane's possible whereabouts. We still have to find out what he's planning."

After Kiah told me all this I nodded and said "Yeah, I expect Saint Dane will turn up again soon enough. Is Deak still here, by the way?"

Kiah said "No, but I explained to him my explanation of Nexelake by telling him that someone had drugged you and hypnotized you into firing that missile. I told it convincingly enough that he told me he understood and wouldn't tell anyone about us."

I nodded and said "Thanks Kiah, I definitely owe you one."

She smiled and said "Well, I had to do it. All Travelers get in trouble, even if they're the Lead Traveler, right?"

We both laughed and Kiah said "You've met Certio right? Well, he expects us for third meal. So, let's go."

We both stood up to leave and then a thought came into my mind. I asked Kiah "Kiah, does Certio know that we're Travelers?"

Kiah said uneasily "No, he doesn't. But I was thinking about asking him to be my acolyte."

I nodded and we left the room. I would have to remember to keep all talk of Travelers, Saint Dane, and all people of Aploshion being in mortal peril on the down low.

Third meal was delicious. Certio cooked up some more of that green meat and also made a side of some roasted darenties. Kiah and Certio talked about politics and the Aploshion government or something like that. I think Kiah was just trying to enjoy a normal conversation. I doubt she had had many of those since my arrival.

I just kept to myself during third meal until I felt something lick my hand. I looked down and freaked out.

"What is that?" I exclaimed.

Certio looked to where I was pointing and laughed. "Oh, don't worry Pendragon, he's harmless. His name is Max."

Kiah looked down and said "Oh, he's so cute."

Max looked similar to a dog except that he had three eyeballs, was covered in huge heaps of shaggy hair, and had two tails. It was the first animal I had seen on Aploshion. It took me a few minutes to get used to him before I could even remotely think of him as 'cute'.

After third meal Kiah said she was tired and was going to turn in early. I followed in suit and went to my room. There I finished up writing yesterday's events in my journal. It felt good to finally get it all down on paper. It almost felt like releasing the memories from my mind. I hoped that here, at Cerrito's farm, I could evade Aploshion security notice for long enough so that I wouldn't have to live in so much worry.

* * *

For the next month Kiah and I stayed with Certio. As the days wore on, Certio taught me more and more about his farm. At first it was basic stuff, like which button activates which set of sprinklers or how to activate more solar light over a crop patch. Basically I was now helping as Certio's assistant which I preferred much more than when I was Birt's assistant.

Another thing I enjoyed about staying with Certio was that he was a great cook. He would always feed Kiah and I delicious meals, most of which came from his own crops. I actually started to get along with Max, which I found out was a durgo, one of the few remaining animals to survive Aploshion's destruction. Most durgos I was told were taken aboard the space stations as pets.

One thing bothered me during my stay with Certio though. Kiah would leave Certio's home occasionally for up to several days at a time. When Kiah first disappeared I questioned Certio about it but he didn't know anymore than I did. Then when Kiah returned a few days later, she would not give me an answer when I asked her where she had gone. When she first told me this I grew angry and Kiah reassured me "I'm sorry that I can't tell you now Bobby. But I promise that all will be made clear later."

The next couple times Kiah left I questioned her again when she came back. Both times she still gave me the same reply. I eventually just gave up and held Kiah to her word that she would eventually tell me. Still, it didn't feel good to be the Lead Traveler and have no idea what's going on.

One day, I was out in the crop patches helping Certio root up some purple carrot-looking things for Certio's next trip up to Okil. Yes, being a moon farmer still required some physical labor. Most of it was set in rooting up all of these crops. Certio and I had been rooting up vegetables for the last three days now! Kiah was absent from Certio's home, which I didn't take much notice to anymore.

After a few more hours of rooting Certio wiped some beads of sweat off his forehead and said "Whew, all right that's enough work for today Pendragon. Let's bring 'em up to the cargo ships for transport and then I'll cook us some good roasted darenties for a snack."

I nodded gratefully and got to work setting the purple carrots in these large, rectangular boxes that hovered a few feet above the ground. When I had stored all of the vegetables in the boxes I pushed a button on each of the boxes and followed them as they hovered toward the cargo ships, which lay in Certio's garage.

After that I entered the kitchen and warmly welcomed a nice bowl of roasted darenties from Certio. After a few minutes of blissful snacking, enjoying the aftermath of a hard day's work, Certio and I heard a knock on the entrance door of Certio's home. Certio went up to check the peephole in the door and then came back a few seconds later running, saying to me "It's the Aploshion security looking for you! Quick I have a hiding place for you. Follow me!"

Certio and I had heard that the Aploshion security was searching the farms on the moon. We knew it would only be a matter of time before they came here. Luckily, Certio had a hiding spot for me under one of the tiles in the floor that he was sure nobody would look under.

Once I was tucked into my little hole and the tile closed back over me, Certio ran to answer the door. I heard Certio welcome the security by saying "Hello. What brings you to my farm?"

A bored voice answered "It's required that we search every farm on the moon for traces of the Nexelake terrorist. We just need to search your home for a couple minutes."

Certio kept a false cheerful voice and said "Not a problem. Not a problem at all. Search away!"

The bored voice responded "Thanks for your compliance sir. We've had to go through ten of these farms already today and probably another several more before the day is done. Some of those farmers don't like their privacy being invaded and try to fight us away. We try to tell them that it's for their own safety but some still don't agree. They say we should at least give them notice before we just bust in, and I have to admit I kind of agree.

But, we're just following orders. Trust me, I hate this boring job. I mean, as if we would really find the Nexelake terrorist on a moon farm."

A faint laugh went through the security members. They took the next couple minutes to check every room of Certio's house. Then, to my relief, they left without another word. Certio came and lifted the tile, revealing the small hole I was hiding in.

Certio smiled and said "Well, we won't have to worry about them anymore Pendragon. And by the looks of them, it didn't seem like they expected to find anything anyways. Trust me; they did a very poor search. They didn't even bother to check the garage!"

I laughed and so did Certio. It was a huge load off of both of our chests knowing that we wouldn't have to worry about the Aploshion security anymore. I wished Kiah was here because I was sure she would be laughing and smiling with joy too. That night, Certio fixed the both of us a victory dinner. It included roasted darenties, an insanely good salad made up of Certio's crops, sweetened yooghs, that green meat that I had fallen in love with, and to top it all off a pie made with little cherry-tasting fruits called jajas. It was the best meal I had ever had on Aploshion.

This day had gone great. I had finished rooting the crops and had evaded the Aploshion security only a few minutes later. For the rest of that evening, I forgot all of my troubles. I was feeling so confident and victorious, I even forgot about Saint Dane. It felt great.


End file.
